1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
With respect to the classification of art as established in and by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, this invention is believed to be found in the general class entitled as "Textiles, Manufacturing," and more particularly, to a Spreader Roller to stretch the intermediate portion of a traveling web to remove wrinkles.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
A careful pre-ex search was made in and of the art as exemplified by the United States Patents. U.S. Pat. No. 1,005,801, as issued to BIRCH on Oct. 17, 1911, showed or disclosed a brush-type of cloth stretching device. The brushes are in contact with the traveling web and there is no suggestion or teaching of a no-bow spreader roller. Also noted were U.S. Pat. No. 2,600,291 as issued to ENGLER on June 10 1952; U.S. Pat. No. 2,626,422 as issued to LAMMERTSE on Jan. 27, 1953; U.S. Pat. No. 3,060,545 as issued to THIEL et al on Oct. 30, 1962; U.S. Pat. No. 3,344,493 as issued to TELGHEIDER on Oct. 3, 1967; U.S. Pat. No. 3,543,365 as issued to HELMINEN on Dec. 1, 1970; U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,018 as issued to JUNK et al on June 27, 1972; U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,491 as issued to BERRY et al on May 22, 1973; U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,183 as issued to KUOSA on Sept. 11, 1984; and a bowed roller utilizing a cover was shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,947 as issued to RICHTER on Apr. 3, 1979.
A very recently issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,971 to GINTER on Sept. 15, 1987 addressed the problem of removing wrinkles from a traveling web of flexible material, but this roller of GINTER anticipates sections 42, each of which are carried by two rows of ball bearings. The central support shaft 30 is bowed and is non-rotating, as in the applicants device, but does not provide the desired wrinkle removal in a traveling web. Curved rollers are well known and often have surfaces of steel or aluminum as segments, generally called spool assemblies, which are rotatably mounted on a curved axle. The opposite ends of the curved axle are clamped and are adjustable so that the curved axis of the axle may be set in any desired plane about a straight axis common to both end clamps.
These compensating rollers and the manner of adjustably supporting them, such that the curved axis of the axles thereof can be set in any desired plane, generally function satisfactorily in stretching or contracting webs crosswise of their length and in removing wrinkles from the webs traveling over them. In many cases, however, it is found that the opposite lateral edges of the web are wrinkled since the webs are not properly expanded or contracted along its edges. these wrinkled edges must be trimmed or otherwise removed. Doing so can create a substantial amount of waste.
The compensating rollers, as identified above, do not completely remove wrinkles, ripples, bags and torque marks from fast moving flexible webs, along a flat plane. The present invention is believed to provide such a device and perform in a positive manner.